Saltwire Exclusive: Australia-based marijuana company building 20,000 square foot production facility in West Hants

Creso Pharma’s cannabis production facility is currently under construction in West Hants, Nova Scotia. According to documents from the Australia-based company’s website, the site is approximately 20,000 square feet and could produce between 2,000 and 4,000 kilograms of cannabis annually. - Colin Chisholm

WEST HANTS, N.S. — The Windsor-West Hants Industrial Park will soon have a new tenant, just in time for Canada’s plan to legalize marijuana.

Creso Pharma, a publicly traded company based in Australia, is hoping that the impending legalization of marijuana in Canada, will be a boon for its growing cannabis industry, which includes supplying recreational and medical marijuana products.

Although the company has yet to confirm directly to the Valley Journal-Advertiser the location of the facility, construction of a large structure on Ivey Lane is emblazoned with the Creso Pharma logo.

A PDF on the company’s website also details progress of the new, 20,000-square-foot facility in Nova Scotia, Canada, with images that match the Windsor-West Hants Industrial Park location.

“We are very pleased that construction of the production facility is progressing well with site works such as the formation of roads and driveways and land excavation now complete as well as the installation of services including water, sewer, drainage and power,” Creso Pharma co-founder and chief executive officer Dr. Miri Halperin Wernli said in the press release.

“The Canadian market represents a significant opportunity for Creso and we look forward to completing construction by Q3 2018 which will allow us to capitalise on the huge market opportunity in Canada once recreational cannabis is legalised in addition to medicinal cannabis.”

Creso’s expansion into Canada was made possible after acquiring Mernova Medicinal Inc., a Nova Scotia-based company, which is now a subsidiary of Creso.

According to documents on Creso’s website, the facility is expected to be complete around July 2018, when the federal government is expected to pass its cannabis legalization bill, and legal, recreational marijuana will be available to the public.

Creso Pharma’s cannabis production facility is currently under construction in West Hants, Nova Scotia. According to documents from the Australia-based company’s website, the site is approximately 20,000 square feet and could produce between 2,000 and 4,000 kilograms of cannabis annually.

Information on the site says Mernova Medicinal Inc. is working with federal and provincial governments to best position its branding, packaging and marketing to line up with anticipated guidelines.

Documents on Creso’s website say that Mernova is actively recruiting key personnel, although the number of employees that would work at this facility is unknown at this time.

Once completed, the facility is expected to produce between 2,000 and 4,000 kilograms of cannabis annually.

According to the document, Creso and Mernova have also agreed to exercise the right of first refusal option on the adjoining land parcel to allow Mernova to expand the facility to up to 200,000 square feet. The company says this will allow the facility to scale with demand, once cannabis is legalized in Canada.

The document also states that Deloitte Canada, a consulting firm, has projected Canada’s recreational marijuana use market between C$4.9 billion to C$8.7 billion. Various other industry estimates have also placed the total market size including ancillary products and services to total more than C$20 billion.

Canada currently has 58 licensed medicinal cannabis producers and 235,621 registered patients (as of September 2017), according to Creso.